28.3.16

It's really terrifying how fast time flies. I told myself I'd take a 'short break' away from blogging, and the next thing I know its 2016 and the last time I wrote was 2014....I'll start with an apology as I'm not quite sure where I have been or what I have been doing all this time! If you can forgive me for being away for so long I'll tell you all about these two brushes that I have been sent.

A couple of weeks ago an email popped up in my inbox from the team at www.makeupbrushes.co.uk, offering me the opportunity to choose two brushes from their ranges available. I said yes please (of course) and chose two brushes that I could compare, a slightly less known brand Brush Works and everybody's favourite, Real Techniques.

Makeup Brushes sent these out to me pretty quickly and I tested each one for a whole week each with different foundations to see what they could do, and I must say I'm really impressed with both. The Brush Works Multi-Tasking brush is a soft, fluffy brush that blended in all my favourite foundations, including the slightly thicker liquids such as Studio Fix Fluid without any problem. The only bad thing I could say about this one, and it's not even a bad thing, is that the brush is slightly smaller than the RT brush so takes seconds longer to do your whole face. I told you I was struggling to say something bad about it...

The Real Techniques brush obviously lived up to my expectations as well so I'm not going to say a huge amount about it as most of us know how great they are. I loved the angled brush and it blended areas such as my nose and my jaw very quickly. This brush also worked great for sculpting and with blusher, and the Brush Works brush also handled both of these tasks very well.

I'm pleasantly surprised with the quality of the Brush Works Multi-Tasking Brush and honestly didn't expect it to be on par with the Real Techniques Sculpting Brush, but I've learnt my lesson and will pay more attention to this brand!

Brush Works Multi-Tasking Brush retails at £6.99 and Real Techniques Sculpting Brush retails at £8.99, and both can be purchased with free delivery from www.makeupbrushes.co.uk.

31.8.14

My empty products drawer was starting to get rather full again, so it's time to show you all the things I've used up! I finally got round to buying the Soap & Glory Sugar Crush body scrub after all the hype, and was not disappointed. The smell was amazing and although the scrub was a little sticky, it did scrub well and left my skin really soft. I would definitely buy this again and am debating buying the matching shower gel. Next is one of my regular products - The Body Shop All in One Face Base. I love this powder - its technically a powder foundation, but I wear it over my liquid foundation for amazing coverage. It lasts a lot longer on my combination skin too, so I have to powder less through the day. I buy this all the time, I will have to devote a post to it soon! I've also used up the Nip + Fab Gylcolic Fix Exfoliating Facial Pads mini pot I had - and already bought the full size product. You can find the review on that HERE. I've starting going through the mascaras in my drawer and used up the Maybelline Mega Plush Volume Express mascara. I'm really on the fence with this mascara - the wand was super bendy so I found I kept poking myself in the eye with it. It the mascara was a lot better when it dried out a bit, however. I think I'm still on the quest for the perfect mascara.

I've started leaving a hand cream on my office desk so I remember to use it more - and I've used up my mini Crabtree and Evelyn La Source hand cream. I loved the smell of this and it sank into my hands really well and left them super soft. I have a few more hand creams to get through but would probably consider buying this again. Another regular - Batiste dry shampoo. This scent is the Oriental, which I really liked as it reminded me of Japanese cherry blossom and gave a nice scent on days I forgot to wear a fragrance. I'm currently using the Cherry scented dry shampoo but I tend to bounce between that and this one. I've gotten through two shower gels - the Imperial Leather Foamburst in Blackberry and Wild fig. I loved the smell of this but it did leave my skin quite dry and I didn't really like the foam as much as I thought I would. I also didn't like how after pressing the button, a little bit of foam would always come out after you've used it and get on your other products. I also got through the Dove Go Fresh body wash in Plum and Sakura blossom - which again had a great smell, but I really didn't find this too moisturising either. I found I had to use quite a lot of this in my hard water area - not great. I've got plenty of other shower gels to plough through so I probably won't be buying these any time soon.

27.8.14

If you follow me on Instagram you would have seen me post this baby a few days ago. I have been searching for the perfect way to store my earrings for some time now, as I always lose one or I forget what I have, or they generally just go astray. I think I finally may have come up with an easy, compact and dust free way to store my earrings! This beautiful Copper Glass Box is from H&M and I just adore it. It's £9.99 and you can find it HERE. I've teamed it up with these beautiful recycled earring cards which are mini enough to store a lot in one box. I bought a pack of 50 for £4.59, but they also offer them in 20's and for the die-hard earring collector, in packs of 100. They also come in white but I love the recycled card effect. You can find these HERE. This beautiful box now sits proudly on top of my chest of drawers looking super swish. I'm so pleased with it and hopefully I'll be able to find all my earrings now!

25.8.14

Oh, there's so much I could say about these little beauties, but I'll try and keep it short and sweet. Months ago in a Christmas present, I received a sample size of these pads and fell in love with them instantly. I don't have, spotty skin, just slightly uneven and around my hairline it my skin feels a little bit bumpy. These pads do absolute wonders for resurfacing my skin - they contain a mix of Glycolic acid, Hyaluronic acid, and blue daisy. With all the acids I did expect them to sting - but they feel so gentle on my skin and it's definitely looking better for it. I use just one at night, (my skin is a bit temperamental so I don't use in the morning) after cleansing but before moisturising - and they make my skin feel so fresh the next day, and slowly but surely, my skin is feeling smoother, and all those horrible little bumpy bits that aren't really spots but never seem to go away - are actually going away. I feel its very rare for me to find a product that actually works but I'm going to say it - HOLY GRAIL PRODUCT. These cost £12.99 for 60 pads so if like me, you only use once a day; that's £6 a month, which I feel is well worth it. Boots and various other places sell these, but so do the supermarkets, who tend to have them on offer so its worth looking out for them.

17.8.14

Eeek! Meet my beautiful new kitten! I've been dying to show you all for ages but she started off a little camera shy but now she loves her picture being taken. We've named her Penny, and she's an adorable fluffy ball of playful fun. We got her at 9 weeks old and she wouldn't come near us for the first two days as she was having a little bit of a hard time adjusting to her new home. After that she was running around like a maniac and now at 15 weeks old she's a cheeky little monkey! My instagram and snapchat is just now filled with cat related things. She gets a little bit jealous when my boyfriend is round but once she has me all to herself again she's super happy. She's just so adorable!